The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has reported that the use of seat belts on airplanes has reduced injuries and saved lives during air turbulence and air crashes. The utility of airplane seat belts has prompted the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to promulgate rules requiring all airlines to provide seat belts to their passengers. However, despite the FAA regulations, not every airplane passenger receives the full protection of a seat belt. For example, children under 40 pounds do not receive the full benefit from seat belts that are designed for adults. As there is no federal regulation requiring the provision of seat belts specifically designed for children lighter than 40 pounds, airlines do not provide them. This inequity to young passengers is aggravated by the fact that airlines often require children over the age of two to buy a ticket without affording these young travelers the same protection other passengers receive.
Until the law requires the use of airplane child safety devices, children will continue to suffer from injuries, sometimes fatal injuries, during air turbulence or air crashes. The current practice of adults holding on to children is simply inadequate. The NTSB has reported numerous instances in which children held by an adult during air turbulence or air crashes suffer from severe injuries, including fatal injuries. The NTSB has also reported that child safety belts currently used in a limited number of smaller airplanes have saved the lives of young passengers.
Taking the initiative to provide adequate protection to their children, some parents have attempted to use car seats in airplanes. Currently, only six car seats manufactured in the United States comply with FAA standards for use in airplanes. Although some of these car seats fit and buckle in more easily than others in an airplane, all such car seats are heavy, cumbersome, and awkward to handle. The FAA and the NHTSA (National Highway Transportation Safety Administration) have reported that many car seats are not suitable for use in airplanes either because they are too wide to fit into the airplane seats or because the rows of airplane seats are too close together to accommodate them. Parents who use car seats in airplanes must also haul them through airports, which often creates problems at security checks. In the past, some airlines even prohibited parents from using car seats. As crash safety test results began to demonstrate the danger of carrying infants in the arms of adults and using ordinary seat belts for toddlers, the FAA passed a rule prohibiting airlines from banning car seats on airplanes. Nonetheless, some airlines continue to prohibit their flight attendants from assisting parents with the installation of car seats in airplanes.
Therefore, it is apparent that children lighter than 40 pounds can still benefit from the protection of an airplane child safety device as much as an adult can benefit from the use of a seat belt. However, it appears that airlines will continue to be reluctant to provide airplane child safety devices for at least two reasons. First, existing car seats that comply with FAA standards are not user-friendly and their use could adversely affect flight schedules. Second, the airlines do not have a system to handle the logistics associated with the provision of the car seats in reservation, delivery, storage, maintenance, and redistribution.
Although each airline uses its own proprietary airline reservation system, all airline reservation systems do essentially the same things. All reservation systems reserve a place on an airplane and record a fair amount of information about the passenger such as the passenger's credit card number, preference for an aisle or window seat, special meal request, frequent flyer number, and so on. Passengers who regularly use a particular travel agent often have a travel “profile” that automatically downloads when a reservation is made. However, while some data in the agent's profile is automatically downloaded, the choice of a special meal or seat preference must be “clicked in” to the ticket reservation system separately by the travel agent with each reservation. Because no airline is providing airplane child safety devices, the current reservation systems do not record whether a vehicle child safety device has been requested.
The level of demand for child safety devices and a system to provide them to air travel passengers would increase if a regulation were promulgated to require the use of child safety devices on airplanes for children lighter than 40 pounds. In addition, the demand for child safety devices and a system to provide them would increase if airlines voluntarily make the devices available as part of a “passenger bill of rights.” Currently, there is considerable interest in expanding passenger rights to include “appropriate safe devices” for children. “Forward thinking” airlines might view the provision of airplane child safety devices as giving them a competitive edge.